Blair slammed over tax claims

The Prime Minister had deliberately given Parliament distorted and inaccurate information about the Lib Dems proposals for a 50p top-rate Income Tax band, Mr Kennedy claimed.

He also renewed his pledge to make Conservative leader Michael Howard's Folkestone and Hythe seat a top Lib Dem target in the next General Election, making clear his belief that Labour supporters can be tempted to vote tactically to "behead" the Tories in Parliament.

He also suggested he may call for a full public inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq if Lord Hutton's report on the death of Government scientist Dr David Kelly leaves questions unanswered when it is published next month.

Mr Kennedy's proposals for a 50% Income Tax rate for those earning more than £100,000 have been the subject of bitter exchanges in the House of Commons in the past weeks.

In three successive Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Blair ridiculed the Lib Dems for making "dishonest" claims about what they could do with the £4.7 billion which the tax would be estimated to raise.

A Labour dossier listing 70 supposed Liberal Democrat spending pledges was angrily dismissed by Mr Kennedy, who insisted none of the so-called "pledges" was in fact party policy.

Mr Kennedy told political website ePolitix.com: "He's talking garbage - and he knows it. He knows better and he should do better. He's deliberately distorting and misrepresenting and I'm not going to let go of this.

"I don't mind the Prime Minister standing up and saying he disagrees with a 50 pence top rate because he thinks it won't work or there's more important priorities or there's a better way of doing things.

"That's fine and the marketplace - the electorate - can judge who's right and who's wrong. But what I do object to is coming out with total fabrications about what Liberal Democrat proposals actually are and claiming they're not costed."